By Nils Jacobson
2. How Coltrane Africanized Jazz
AAJ: What music from the past do you incorporate into you're playing? What musicians and what traditions?
ZN: Whatever I do I try to approach it with a jazz sensibility.
AAJ: From the jazz point of view, I hear Coltrane in there.
ZN: Trane succeeded in bringing to the music back to earth. Trane Africanized, if you wish, the music--and made it much more accessible to an African, as a listener and as a practitioner. This is highly demonstrated in his period after A Love Supreme. Not to neglect other periods before that--powerful things, all great. But he was dealing within the confines of modern jazz style, bebop, standards. When he went into that post-bop thing, for me that's the period that moves me. From A Love Supreme, that's what did it for me.
AAJ: When did you hear that record first?
ZN: I was a teenager when I heard that music, and I was involved in other genres. When I heard that, it turned me around. But the most serious period that really guided me to start looking inward was toward the end of his life: Expressions, Infinity, and all of those records. But we never transcribed... because, again, that is way outside the confines of traditional jazz, modern jazz. So you don't find transcriptions of those records... it's impossible to transcribe Infinity or Interstellar Space, you know what I mean? So for me, already, he was out there, when you talk about the real sound now. Also, he suffered from that--having to account for what he was doing. But he just understood it as his spiritual journey.
He was out of control, and that's the point that we all should reach when we play the music: to get to the point where you are played by the music, not you banging on the music. Trane raised that point. So I work from that premise. And again, I respect the advantage that we have on the continent here... that all of that was Trane's doing. What we have here... it's just a question of transposing it, you know. It's merely chance that it's that easy. Based on standard pentatonic scales, if you listen, is the basis of African music, Asian music, a large part of Indian music, Japanese, Chinese... you hear pentatonic all over. Trane was about that, and the continent is about that. And also, the universe is about that, if you look at the philosophy of the elements. So I work from that premise.
And of course I respect the cultural context of it, in terms of the rituals that I grew up with, the ceremonies... be it death, life, weddings, child, earth, or other ceremonies. So I bring that into context and try to deal with it as a totality. And of course respect the theories that have been established, you know. There are certain forms I dealt with, that I find useful in order to express myself, and also to communicate with people... other musicians, so I'm not isolated in this world. So we don't really ignore these things--we deal with them. Because the main desire is to communicate. That's where I come from.
AAJ: So how does that work when you're playing for an audience? How do you connect with the people you're with?
ZN: I am surprised. In South Africa at the moment we are experiencing a wonderful revival of this art form. It's well received. People have been reminded about the art form. They are taking to it easily--they have no problems, if it's presented to them correctly. It is not something foreign to them. That's why, as an artist, I've managed to earn a living in South Africa by playing this music. You know, it's interesting. So that is not a problem. We are communicating with the people at the heart level.
AAJ: Is there some sort of isolation or stratification there, from township jazz, and the culture that grew up around that? Perhaps that's not something you can apply to the community as a whole.
ZN: Jazz in South Africa has never been viewed as a foreign art form. We have always had access to it. I think South Africa is the only place outside the US that has managed to produce this caliber of jazz. I've seen the power of it when I visited the States, you know. The power in the culture. How people live, how people speak the language. Everything: the food, the whole thinking. The power! I'm amazed. The thinking.
Also, we had access to these records from the visitors--sailors--because we have lots of ports here, harbors. There was a serious interaction between the sailors and the prostitutes... actually, that's where I learned the music.
The best jam sessions I went to was the... we didn't know because we were young then... we were caught up in the music... we didn't know those were whorehouses. You'd go out to--it's called in South Africa a "shebeen," where they sell alcohol illegally. And the people who patronized these places were the kids who were listening to the music, as well as the prostitutes who were there to hook up with the sailors, and the sailors would be hooked up with the prostitutes... and in the interim we'd get to hear the music. The sailors would bring the music, you know. The kids were looking for the music. And what's happening is that the guy who holds the whole thing is selling the booze... so we were caught up in that thing without knowing--thank God! We didn't realize that. It's the same thing that happened to the kids like... the music they would play in these whorehouses. The hits of American jazz--the things that we had here!
So that sensibility has always been there, you know. It's interesting observing these parallels. I also think the American visitors feel comfortable when they come here. Just recently we had a gig somewhere in Johannesburg and Donald Harrison came around, and said he'd like to play a few tunes, and he played the whole gig! Yeah, a lot of cats have come through and had the same experience. It's enjoyable. We love it that way.
On to Part 3-7...
